Becoming an investor while in college, should I wait?

Question

Hi all, I'm currently entering my fourth year of studying Mechanical Engineering at the University of Akron. I've slowly but progressively become more and more interested in real estate; reading books, listening to podcasts, watching YouTube videos, and even attending a few meetups. I get more anxious to start investing the longer I wait! As of right now my plan is to wait until I graduate, ideally receive a full-time engineering job, and then begin my real estate journey. Any thoughts on if I sped the process up and began investing, say next Summer 2020? I have student loans out and only have a co-op (internship) that rotates every other semester, so would a bank even be willing to loan to me? Any ideas/knowledge is much appreciated.

JD Martin · Answer

Well, now that you are in your 4th year it might not make any sense to do anything unless you are going to pursue a master's or are staying in the area. If either of those are true you can still house-hack (assuming you're not living at home and have housing expenses). That lets you go to college and get started in real estate. Buy a duplex or triplex, live in one, rent the others out. Or buy a decent sized house and rent out rooms to people at your college.

Bank loan: maybe. Depends if you have any money to put down, what your credit looks like, what other debt obligations you have, etc.

Joshua M Cummings · Answer

JD Martin,

I forgot to mention that my engineering program is a 5-year program, so I have two more years of college left.

Also, I do plan on staying in the area so house hacking was something I was looking at. I do need to do more research on the housing market as it might be too saturated with student housing right now for me to be able to compete against some of the larger rental companies.